Is the State Department on the Saudi Payroll?By: David Bedein The Israel Resource Review | Monday, August 04, 2003

The US State Department acts independently of US congressional approval in its implementation of middle east policy, while obfuscating basic facts from the Executive Branch of the US government, leaving the White House and Congress totally in the dark as to the reality of the Palestinian Authority

These are matters that must be brought to the immediate attention of the White House, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the US House International Relations Committee, and to the media . . .

1. The US State Department has ignored all data brought to its attention from Israeli intelligence which provides documents, records minutes, and recordings which demonstrate Abu Mazen's direct involvement with the PLO murder campaign which has ensued over the past three years, which have resulted in more than 18,000 terror attacks and more than 800 Israeli citizens who have been murdered by Arab terrorists in cold blood.

2. The US State Department has demanded that Israel free hundreds of Arabs who have been involved in acts of murder and premeditated murder, the Arab terrorist did not directly commit an act of murder.

3. The US State Department has demanded that Israel free members of Arab terror organizations who are ideologically committed to murdering Jews.

4. The US State Department has refused to demand that the PLO withdraw its sentence of death for any Jew who lives in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Katif or the Golan.

5. The US State Department has demanded that Israel not publish the documents that it has acquired which demonstrate the direct involvement of the Palestinian National Authority and the Fateh in the campaign of premeditated murder that has occurred over the past three years.

6. The US State Department has refused to comment on the finalized, approved version of the Palestine State Constitution which mandates that the Palestinian State will be based on the Islamic Sharia Law and not allow for religious freedom, human rights or civil liberties, while legislating the "right of return" for all Palestinian Arab refugees from 1948 and for their descendents.

7. The US State Department has mandated that Israel and the PA NOT dissemble the Hamas, which endorses the murder of all Jews in any part of Israel.

8. The US State Department refers to the June 29th "Hudna" agreement that was achieved between the PLO and the Hamas as a "cease-fire", despite the fact that the US State Department knows full well that a "hudna" implies a respite before the next battle in the war. Since the requirement of the "hudna" is that Israel free ALL jailed terrorists as a condition for continuing the war, there is no chance that the "hudna" will lead to peace or reconciliation.

9. The US State Department, while approving massive arms shipments and weapons upgrade for Egypt, has not used any leverage with Egypt to demand that Egypt put a stop to the mass construction of weapons tunnels into Israel.

10. The US State Department, despite its protestations against those who aid and abet terrorist organizations, will issue no public call for Saudi Arabia to cease and desist from its funding of Arab terror organizations.

11. The US State Department, mandated by the US Congress to monitor PA education,has hired the leading PLO advocacy organization known as IPCRI,which has whitewashed the PA school curriculum as a 'peace curriculum while not citing any specific reference in that same curriculum, That US-funded IPCRI report is being used as the rationale for US AID and the EU to renew funding for the PA schools. Meanwhile, the US State Department is ignoring the text analysis of the newest PA school textbooks provided by CMIP, the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, whose work is located at www.edume.org

12. The US State Department, mandated by the US Congress to provide a critical analysis of the status of religious freedom inside the Palestinian Authority, issued a report in which it described the PA "transformation" of "Kever Yosef", Joseph's Tomb, into a mosque as an "act of religious freedom".

13.The US State Department acting under binding legislation which requires the US Congress that it is not allowed to deal with the PLO unless and until the PLO cancels its covenant which calls for the dismemberment of the state of Israel, to be replaced by a state of Palestine. The PNC, the Palestine National Council, met in special session on April 24, 1996 and on December 14, 1998 to consider the question of the PLO covenant. In both cases, the PNC did not cancel the PLO covenant. However, the position of the US State Department is that the PLO covenant has been cancelled. In other words, the US State Department acts in flagrant violation of US law in this regard.

14. The US State Department recently dispatched emissaries to the middle east, John Wolf and William Burns, both of whom met with Israeli political organizations which lobby for the PLO. Meanwhile, Wolf and Burns refused to meet with Israeli organizations which critique the PLO,leaving pro PLO groups as the only Israeli organizations which are in a position to provide feedback for the US State Department

15. The US State Department, mandated by the President to seek ways to facilitate a two-state solution, has allocated a special grant of $70 Million to UNRWA whose mandate mitigates against any such solution. UNRWA, runs Arab refugee camps and advocates policies that promote the"right of return" for four million Palestinian Arab refugees to take back Arab villages from that have been replaced by Israeli towns, collective farms and woodlands.

16. The US State Department, mandated by the US Congress to facilitate the creation of a "democratic state of Palestine", describes the one party elections in which Arafat was elected president of Palestinian Authority in January 1996 as "free and democratic" despite the fact thatall candidates had to be selected and approved by Arafat in order to run. PA Foreign Minister and constitution author Nabil Shaath recently confirmed that Arafat would again be the only candidate for president of the Palestinian Arab entity. However, the PA elections committee spokesperson reassured us by saying that Arafat would again "choose someone to run against him".

17. The US State Department, mandated by the US Congress to facilitate a system of human rights in the Palestinian Authority, turns a blind eye to the fact that the PA has placed more than 200 dissidents on death row for the crime of criticizing the PA. The PA calls them "collaborators"for media consumption.

18. The US State Department has authorized the resumption of direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority, before it took any steps to disarm and disband Arab terror groups that act within the PA. That aid to the PA was supposed to be predicated on that PA crackdown on organizations that plan and conduct acts of premeditated murder against Jews.

19. The US State Department has resumed military training of the PA military forces, after a three year period in which those same PA security forces were directly involved in all levels of terror activity, while incorporating the Hamas.

20. The US State Department, working in conjunction with US AID, has provided financial backing to PASSIA, the Palestinian Arab organization that trains professionals to lobby Capital Hill and the media for their cause. The PASSIA lobby manuals thank the US government for theirgenerous sponsorship. In other words, the US government pays an Arab organization to lobby the US government to advance their interests.

The Israel Resource Review is brought to you by the Israel Resource News Agency, a media firm based at the Bet Agron Press Center in Jerusalem, and the Gaza Media Center under the jurisdiction of the Palestine Authority. You can contact us on media@actcom.co.il.

David Bedein, author of the forthcoming book, "Swimming Against the Mainstream", has run the Israel Resource News Agency. www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com, since 1987, at the Beit Agron Press Center in Jerusalem, where he also heads the Center for Near East Policy Research and serves as the Middle East correspondent for the Philadelphia Bulletin, www.thebulletin.us.

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